It’s impressive how well both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame managed to tie up so many loose ends and character arcs, but naturally they were only able to do so much. For instance, Natasha Romanoff and Bruce Banner’s relationship hardly factored into the films. They had an awkward reunion in IW and unfortunately didn’t share a lot of screentime in Endgame before Black Widow died on Vormir.
The couple’s fans have cried out against this decision, but Scarlett Johansson has now defended the choice as being for the greater good of the overall storyline. The actress said she’s on board with the tragic angle of their relationship, though did admit that she would’ve liked to explore a full romance between them.
“I think that they made a choice that was for the greater good. I think everybody must have had that where you meet someone but it’s just not the right time. It just wasn’t really meant to be, but I would love to do the other story line where they have some sort of Bogart and Bacall romance.”
Nat and Bruce’s connection was first explored in Avengers: Age of Ultron, though they were soon separated when Hulk went into space. He eventually teamed up with Thor on Sakaar in Ragnarok while Black Widow took part in the Sokovia Accords conflict in Captain America: Civil War. A lot changed for the both of them in that time, then, so it makes sense why they wouldn’t necessarily get back together upon reuniting.
Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have also admitted that scenes in which the pair properly discussed their feelings and closed the book on their romance were actually shot, but they were ultimately deemed extraneous and ended up not making it into the final cut. And truth be told, that’s probably for the best.